Impressive South Africa face confident England

A confident England will lock horns with title favourite South Africa in a Group E Super Eight match of the World Twenty20 at the Kensington Oval.

Written by Press Trust of India

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Bridgetown:

It will be a battle of equals when a confident England locks horns with title favourite South Africa in a Group E Super Eight match of the World Twenty20 at the Kensington Oval here on Saturday.

While England defeated Pakistan by six wickets in their first match of the Super Eight stage yesterday, South Africa also produced a clinical performance to get the better of New Zealand by 13 runs in the other match of the day.

With each of them having two points in the kitty, both the Englishmen and Proteas will be aiming to continue with the winning momentum and inch closer towards a semifinal berth.

Neither batting nor bowling is a worry for England, which yesterday rode on Kevin Pietersen's sizzling unbeaten 70 to defeat Pakistan and the team will expect another crackling performance from the experienced cricketer.

England have an dependable opening pair of Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter, who can give a solid foundation while there are batsmen like captain Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan to support Pietersen in the middle order.

Their bowling has been equally impressive so far in the tournament.

Ryan Sidebottom makes the batsmen's life miserable with his consummate line and length, while Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad have the ability of producing some timely breakthroughs in the middle overs.

On the other hand, consistency is the main strength of the South African batting department, which includes star all-rounder Jacques Kallis and the experienced Herschelle Gibbs.

Captain Graeme Smith is coming up in the order, while the rest of line-up also has power-hitters like AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel and Mark Boucher who can pull the team out of the pit in case of any early slip-up.

Their bowling line-up is also ready to give the English batsmen some tough time.

Charl Langeveldt has proved his mettle with the new ball on several occasions and he will get support from speedster Dale Steyn and medium pacer Andre Botha.

At times Smith would also like to take the help of Kallis who can fetch from his wide experience to produce required breakthroughs.